You won't learn about a Zentangle in math class!!

I had never heard of a Zentangle!!  Its a great way to get your creative brain flowing without much effort.  A Zentangle is a form of artistic meditation that uses repetitive patterns to create images. It is usually done in black and white and the patterns have a rhythm. The ideal is to let yourself be carried away by the creative process and allow the design to grow organically. Aka.........DOODLING!!  In Gayle's class today we started out by exploring this idea.  She put four dots on her paper and then drew a random line in the idea of a string being laid onto the paper.  You then start repetitive shapes within the spaces formed by the line.

I looked around the room for inspiration.  These images are the patterns that I used in my Zentangle. 

An easy way to get inspired!  Learn more about Zentangles

 here.

How 8 songs can tweak your brain!!!

I just love Gayle Gerson's class at The Western Colorado Center for the Arts.  She is a wonderful teacher.  I look forward to going every week.  I highly suggest that if you live around Grand Junction you take it.   And take it even if you have never experienced collage.  It is great for everyone!

This week we were given "prompts" in the form of song titles.   Gayle chose 8 titles and put them in a bowl which were randomly chosen one at a time.  After the song title was read aloud you were given  about 5-10 min to express it through paint, paper, or medium of your choice.  It was both challenging and freeing having no significant amount of time to decide what to do.  You just had to act and not think about how what you did might effect the next step in your piece.   So much of my collaging is premeditated and it was a stressful relief (???)  to just act!

These are the 8 song titles we were given:
1.  Down on the corner
2.  Mrs. Brown you've got a lovely daughter
3. Supermassive black hole
4.  White sport coat and a pink carnation
5.  By the light of the silvery moon
6.  Song sung blue
7.  That ole black magic
8. Lady in red

It was really fun to see all of the different interpretations!!

We used this excersize to create the groundwork for a finished collage.  Gayle will be photographing each step throughout the process.  SO FUN!!!

Advanced painters do collage!!!!

I met Heather Patterson McCulloch at the Demented Show presented by The Raw Canvas in October.  She asked if I would be a guest artist at CMU for her advanced painting class.  I was honored and gladly accepted.  Her students are a talented and hard working clan of artists.   Seeing their work and talking with them about it was super fun!

Elizabeth Paroni

Dylan

 Julia Ennis

Sea Dog

Geoff Mueck

Riot Cleanup

Sandy Tull

Onyx Cly-Peek

Zoey

Marilyn Anderson Wilcox

on fb

here

Paula K

(her grandma - love!!!)

Jennifer Dubois

Hayley Nikkel

on fb

here

Stephanie Nelson

Allison Daugherty

on fb

here

I love it!! All of these students are AMAZING artists!!!

  I definitely recommend spending time with other artists.  It is easy to get comfortable working in your own space.  When you remove yourself from that isolation and force yourself to be open to other people, their talent and ideas, positive stupendous creative things happen!!

Experiementing in collage is always an adventure!!  Thanks guys for a wonderful time!!

 

Citrasolv your artistic block!!!

Another great class this week!!

We started out with a drawing exercise.

I do not spend enough time drawing.  It is SO important!  I am going to put drawing time into my daily schedule at my studio.  I know that if I set aside the time it will really benefit me as an artist.  Never be critical about what happens when you are drawing!!  (ok. I did cut off most of my drawing in this photo because I thought it was ridiculus!!) TRY not to be critical about your drawing skills!  As the wonderful teacher of this class stated, "Drawing is a skill that improves with practice."  Practice.  I can do that!

I love this cool effect using  Citrasolv.  It is a natural citrus solvent used as a greaser.  You want to use the concentrate.  Using a brush, apply the Citrisolv to pages of National Geographic Magazine.  Late 1990-current issues work for this effect.

The product reactivates the ink on the pages and they run together.  After applying it to the pages (by the way the advertisements don't work as well as the photos) you set it aside to "melt" for about 10-15 min.  Tear each page out and let dry completely.  For me opening each page is like Christmas!!  I LOVE IT!!  I have a whole folder of these pages that I have made and I covet them!!  I can  barely stand to use them!  Here are a few examples of the effect.

Vera Mulder, mentioned in my last blog, discovered a cool technique by printing the ink onto paper while still wet.

YAY!!! SO COOL

I did use one (ONLY ONE!!!) of the pages in a piece for The Raw Canvas.

Treachery ·©wendygillart

The background behind her head was created from this technique.  Hopefully I can overcome the urge to consider these pages "my PRECIOUS" and use them more!!!

View work from various artists on the Citrisolv website.  This is super easy and fun to do and it is so beautiful! The possibilites are endless!!



I am taking Gayle Gerson's mixed media class.  You can never spend to much time with other artists!!  Gayle is an excellent teacher.  You can see her amazing collage work here.  The class is one morning a week for 5 weeks.  I will be posting each week after the class!!

We were given a children's board book.  We sanded all the surfaces to prepare them to accept paint.  We covered all of the pages with black acrylic.  We would make a page demonstrating each of the following elements of composition.

1. Line

2. Shape

3.Color

4. Value

5. Size/Placement

6. Texture

7. Movement/Direction

I thought the paper on the table turned out amazing!!

We were also given a great simple design formula.

good design is using alot of one thing

a little of another thing

and a tiny bit of something else

So far my little book only has the page for texture.

This is such a fun and easy excersize!!  You could do it at home and explore these concepts or just have a great time making a collaged book!!!

These are the amazingly talented fingers of Vera Mulder!! She has dedicated so much of her life to her own art and to teaching others.  You can see her work here.

Contemplating greatness!!

I HAVE MY OWN STUDIO

Let me just say that again.

I HAVE MY OWN STUDIO

If you have ever had a dream I know you can relate to how

EXCITED

I am!!

I'm just getting everyting unpacked and getting to work.  I am so very thankful that I have a space to call my own.  Its just a dream come true!

I HAVE MY OWN STUDIO!!!

A studio story!

I've contemplated the need for a studio for a few years now.  I have DREAMED of having a studio for a lifetime!! 

I have worked in quite a few "studios" that I'm sure alot of artists can relate to.  The deep dark downstairs of a house on the front range hosted many a late night, vodka induced, sessions while my sweet family slept the night away.  I would lay aside my house wife reality and lose myself  in canvas and paint.  I wish I had taken pictures of some of the work I did at that time.  I did not keep any of it.  It was a creative outlet for me and the finished product was of no importance.  When I returned to the mountains of North Park I was lucky to have a huge room to create in.  Ok, it was the living room.  But there was another one downstairs for TV and teenagers!!  Having that space really opened me up as an artist.  I created some of my favorite pieces.

                                 

When we moved to the Western Slope I left my art supplies all packed up for quite a while.  Our house was too small.  I wasn't sure I should pursue art.  I was  distracted with a new life.  The list of excuses went on in my mind.  But art doesn't leave you.  It nags you!! It wants out and refuses to be denied!!  I finally hired a life coach.  I can hardly relate to the fact that I did that!  It sounded to me like something executives would do-not me!!  I left that meeting with a life changing piece of advice.  Go to home depot.  Buy an outdoor rug and put it in your bedroom to protect the carpet.  Then unpack your art supplies and see what happens!! (Yes, I did pay $100 for this insightful idea!!)  Sometimes you need another person to state the obvious!!  I did it and have been obsessively creating ever since!

Don't let excuses keep you from the things you love!!  They make you HAPPY!!!